About this blog

My name is Bill Hirt and I'm a candidate to be a Representative from the 48th district in the Washington State legislature. My candidacy stems from concern the legislature is not properly overseeing the WSDOT and Sound Transit East Link light rail program. I believe East Link will be a disaster for the entire eastside. ST will spend 5-6 billion on a transportation project that will increase, not decrease cross-lake congestion, violates federal environmental laws, devastates a beautiful part of residential Bellevue, creates havoc in Bellevue's central business district, and does absolutely nothing to alleviate congestion on 1-90 and 405. The only winners with East Link are the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington and their labor unions.

This blog is an attempt to get more public awareness of these concerns. Many of the articles are from 3 years of failed efforts to persuade the Bellevue City Council, King County Council, east side legislators, media, and other organizations to stop this debacle. I have no illusions about being elected. My hope is voters from throughout the east side will read of my candidacy and visit this Web site. If they don't find them persuasive I know at least I tried.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Sound Transit Terminates Prop I Light Rail Extensions

I submitted the following to the
Seattle Times in response to the recent editorial page question “What Headlines
Would You Like to See in 2016”.I posted it since they will “likely” ignore it.

Sound Transit Terminates Prop 1 Light
Rail Extensions

All one needs to know about the area’s
congestion problem and the utter futility of Sound Transit spending billions on
Prop 1 light rail extensions attempting to “fix it” is available on the WSDOT
website www.wsdot.com/traffic/seattle/default.aspx.

It includes a chart
showing “Traffic Conditions” as of the date and time in colors ranging
from green, “wide open”, yellow “moderate”, red “heavy” and black “stop and
go”. If one is interested in
their particular commute, the “Travel Time” charts shows not only current
travel time, but average travel times for 61 routes throughout the area.Again the current travel times are
color coded green for “less than average”, blue for “average”, and red for “longer
than average”. All the data is
updated every 3-5 minutes at least during peak commute times.

The 7:25 AM
December 15th charts showed major portions on all the area’s
roadways were either red or black indicating “heavy” or “stop and go”
conditions.The only exception was
both the I-90 and 520 bridge "traffic conditions" were green.The more important data for most commuters was the current
travel time for their specific route. For example the 65-minute Everett-to-Seattle time on the
regular lanes was green because the average was 74 minutes.Those able to use the express lanes reached Seattle in 64
minutes, 4 minutes less than the 68-minute average.The 64-minute Everett-to-Bellevue time was also green compared
to the 67-minute average.Those
able to use HOV lanes did so in 33 minutes.

The Federal Way-to-Seattle
route travel times were a red 72 minutes vs. 60 average and 54 minutes on HOV
lanes.Federal Way-to-Bellevue travel
was even worse, 85 minutes vs. 74 average and 65 on HOV Lanes.Alderwood-to-South Center travel
times via I-5 were 68 minutes vs. 74 via I-405. By comparison the I:00 PM December 15th traffic
conditions were green throughout and commute times slashed to 30 minutes
Everett-to-Seattle and 27 to Bellevue; Federal Way 23 minutes to Seattle and 25
to Bellevue; and Alderwood-to-Southcenter 31 and 32 minutes for I-5 and I-405
routes.

Again eastside
residents benefitted with 7:25 AM cross-lake Bellevue-to-Seattle travel times
of 13 minutes via 520, 18 minutes via I-90 regular lanes and 16 on I-90 HOV lanes,
and 11 and 12 minutes on the two bridges at 1:00 PM.However, eastside congestion was evident in the 7:25 AM red 24-minute
travel time between Issaquah and Bellevue.Cross-lake travel times tended to increase later in the
morning, requiring a red 31 minutes on I-90 and 22 minutes on 520 at 8:30 on
the 16th.

Sound Transit plans
to spend $3.8B on East Link to confiscate the center roadway for light rail
will undoubtedly turn I-90 Bridge traffic colors from mostly green to perpetual
red and black with commensurate increased travel times for much of the day. Rather than increasing congestion they
could reduce current cross-lake travel times by allowing commuters to use the essentially
completed 4th lanes on the outer roadways.Easing I-90 corridor congestion requires attracting more
transit riders with added parking and bus routes both into Seattle and to
Bellevue T/C.Dividing the center
roadway into inbound and outbound bus-only lanes will reduce transit times making
it even more attractive.

The other obvious
conclusion is that Prop 1 light rail extensions will have absolutely no impact
on I-405 congestion.(The fact that
average 7:45 AM Everett-to-Bellevue times increased to 67 minutes speaks
volumes about the efficacy of the WSDOT spending $484 million on HOT lanes to
reduce I-405 congestion.) Current Everett-to-Bellevue,
Federal Way-to-Bellevue, and Alderwood-to-Southcenter via I-405 commute times
will only increase as traffic grows.

The best I-5
commuters can expect from the billions spent on light rail is a reduction in
the number of buses on the HOV lanes.However, it’s “unlikely” the reduced number of buses will change either the
average 68-minute, 7:25 AM, HOV travel times between Everett and Seattle, or the 54-minute
HOV times between Federal Way and Seattle.

Again, the
“average” Travel Times on the WSDOT web site define the congestion problem. (No one can rationally classify a 64-minute travel time on an HOV lane between Everett and Seattle as "green".) The Prop 1 extensions will increase
I-90 travel times and have at best, a minuscule effect on I-5. The only way to turn traffic colors on
the web site green and reduce the “average” travel times is to use part of
the light rail funds to add thousands of parking spaces “near where commuters
live” with express bus routes to “near where they want to go”.Sound Transits acknowledgement of that reality via a headline
“Sound Transit Terminates Prop 1 Light Rail Extensions” would benefit the
entire area.

About Me

My last elective position was class president for 25 “class of ’57” seniors in Armstrong, Iowa. I received an MS in engineering at ISU, worked at Boeing for 36 years before retiring in 1998. My wife and I moved into our current home in Bellevue in 1967 where we raised two daughters. Three years of unsuccessful attempts to persuade BCC to block EL are available on “extended session” meeting minutes. Copies of many were sent to all the media outlets, legislators, and others to no avail. I’m hoping this Web site will convince east side residents to query their own legislators.